Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Ex-mayor Sue Hack passed the torch on to the new Mayor Michael Dever at last night’s Lawrence City Commission meeting as all five commissioners voted unanimously to elect Dever as mayor and Robert Chestnut as the new vice mayor.
Chestnut said the three most significant issues he and Dever would focus on during their terms were balancing the 2009 budget, encouraging economic development and improving the planning process by making sure land-use permits are processed more efficiently.
Before stepping down as mayor, Hack gave her state of the city address in which she praised Lawrence’s relationship with the University of Kansas.
“We must not fail to recognize the millions of dollars that flow into this community due to the efforts of the research done at KU,” Hack said. “Encouraging individuals who called Lawrence home for their college careers to come back and invest in this community will be an added benefit of our positive relationship with the University.”
Hack went on to discuss the specific relationships between the city and the University, such as the possible merge between KU on Wheels and the city transit system – something Dever had been working on throughout his one-year term as vice mayor.
“I thank Vice Mayor Dever for his efforts in working with our staff and Kansas personnel to move this effort forward,” Hack said.
She also praised two projects the city and the University partnered in building: the new tennis facility, First Serve, and the new KU Boathouse, which is not yet completed.
Hack continued her address with what she thought would be the biggest challenge facing city commissioners in the upcoming year: the 2009 budget.
“We know that if we are lucky, our revenues from sales tax and property tax will be equal to what they were last year, but there is a strong possibility that they will be less,” Hack said.
She said she believed disconnect exists in much of Lawrence between what people in the community expect from city services and what it takes to maintain those services.
“Lawrence has always prided itself on being a community that enjoys its parks, its bike paths, its arts, its cultural heritage and its downtown ... just to name a few,” Hack said. “Maintaining these important pieces of our community takes money and when the bulk of that money comes from residential property taxes, we are putting ourselves in a perilous position.”
Hack went on to express the need for the city to look at adding additional sites for industrial development to expand the city’s economy.
Economic development has traditionally been a political issue that has divided Lawrence residents.
“None of these decisions are easy and none come without a fair amount of angst on the part of many citizens, but unless Lawrence wants to drop further and further into the bedroom community situation, we simply have to find a way to present to companies additional industrial sites,” Hack said.
Dever received the most votes in the previous city commission election and Chestnut received the second-most.
Traditionally, the two candidates who receive the most votes in a city commission election are nominated as mayor and vice mayor in the following mayoral election, said Lisa Patterson, city communications manager.
The Lawrence city commission hasn’t broken this tradition since 1989, according to the city’s Web site.
Dever and Chestnut will hold their positions for a year.
— Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird
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